Apparatus for feeding blades from a stack



Oct. 10, 1950 J. A.G1LB4ERT 5,0 1

AI PARATUS FOR FEEDING BLADES FROM A STACK Filed Feb. 7, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 1.-

INVENTOR.

J.A.GILBERT.

BY M W) ATTO RNE Y 5-.

Oct. 10, 1950 v J. A. GILBERT 3 APPARATUS FOR FEEDING BLADES FROM A STACK Filed Feb. Z, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3.

iatentecl Oct. 1 0,

APPARATUS FOR FEEDING BLADES FROM A s'rAoK Joseph Arthur Gilbert, Gainsborough, England,

assignor to Rose Brothers (Gainsborough) Limited, Gainsborough: an ered, a British ompany Application-February 7, 19.46, Serial No. 646,151 In Great Britain February 27, 1945 3 Claims. (01371 14) This" invention relatesto machines for wrapping razor blades or similar articles (hereinafter referred to as bl'ades), and more particularly to the feeding of the blades to the Wrapping elem'ents of such machines.

In a known form of apparatus (referred to hereinafter as the kind described), the blades are fed from a magazine in which they are contained in the form of a stack by means of a reciprocating pusher arranged to slide along the base" of the magazine and pushthe lowermost blade out of the magazine intoa suitable guide- Way along which it is forwarded to the wrapping element by 'a forwarding" device.

The thickness of a blade is very small, i. e., of the order of .005 of an inch or less, and consequently, there is little surface o'n which the tip of the pusher can bear. This has given rise. to difficulties in the feeding of the blades, and it is I an object of the present invention to avoid such difficulties. I

According to the invention, therefore, there is provided an apparatus of the kind described in which the tip of the pusher during its feeding movement across the ba se of the magazine is caused to move towards the magazine in a transverse direction.

l A convenient manner of bringing about such transverse movement of the pusher is to mount the pusher in a slide which is inclined towards the base of the magazine with respect to the direction of travel of the blade so that, during the pushing of the blade from the-magazine, the tip of the pusher moves across the edge of the blade and thus obtains "a firmer hold on the blade. The degree of inclination of the slide need only be very slight, i. e., of theorder of half a degree.

It will be understood that, with blades of such small thickness, the setting of the tip of the pusher in relation to the lowermost blade in the magazine, must be very accurate for efiicient operation, and it is found that, with an inclined pusher according to the invention, a satisfactory setting is obtained when the tip of the pusher, at the point of contact with the blade, lies very slightly below the upper surface of the blade, say one thousandth of an inch below, at the beginning of the stroke of the pusher. During further movement of the pusher, the tip of the blade rises, due to the inclination of the slide, above the level of the upper surface of the blade, slightly lifting the remaining blades in the stack in consequence.

The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of part of the mechanism at the blade-feeding station of a razor blade wrapping machine, 7

Figure 2 is a plan view of the portion of the apparatus shown in Figure 1 with portions of the upper structure removed for clarity of illustration, and

Figure 3 is a sectional view of a portion of the apparatus shown in Figures 1 and 2 taken along the line 3-4 in Figure 2.

Referring to the drawings, the blades H are contained in, a magazine l2 and are fed from the base of the magazine by a reciprocating pusher l3 arranged for reciprocation in a slide it forming part of the main framework it. The pusher i3 is actuated by a link it pivotally attached at one'end to a bracket l8 depending from the rear end of the pusher I3 and at the other end to an arm i9 pivotally mounted at 2| in the main framework and provided with a cam roller 22 arranged to bear against the face of a rotatable cam 23-secured to a cam shaft 24. The shaft 24 is arranged to operate in timed relationship with a rotatable pocket member 26 provided with a series of radially disposed pockets 2?, the pocket member 26 being brought'to rest as each pocket 27: in turn reaches the feeding station.

The. pusher i3 is in theform of a bar having a cross-section of inverted T-shape and is provided with a pair of pins 28 and tithe pin 28'being the pusher pin and fixed to the pusher it'while the'pin 2!! acts a a guide for keeping the blade straight during its transference from the magazine to the pocket wheel and is in the form of a spring-loaded plunger capable of being depressed to the level of the pusher It.

The operative surfaces of the slide is are inclined towards the base of the magazine 52 with respect to the direction of travel of the blade it so that, during the pushing of'the blade l i from the magazine, the pusher pin 28 is caused to move transversely of the blade in the magazine. The degree of inclination of the slide it is of the order of half a degree, and for clarity of illustration, such inclination has been grossly exaggerated in Figure 1. The thickness of the blades ll is also exaggerated for the same reason.

The base of the magazine i2 is in the form of a pair of supporting rails 3! which are attached to the upper surface of the slide it by brackets 32, the rails 3| being spaced apart to allow of the passage of the pins 28 and 29.

The stack of blades II is thus supported only gages the forward edge of the forward hole of V the blade I I and causes it to slide from the stack,

the pin 29 having engaged the rear hole for purposes of keeping the blade straight on the pusher l3. pin 28 moves transversely of the hole in the blade by virtue of the inclination of the track so as to obtain a firmer hold on the blade, and finally passes right through the hole in the blade,

the blade being finally pushed off the rails 31 and .I

allowed to rest on the surface of the pusher 13. A bridge piece 33 is provided on the slide way I4 and is formed with a curved middle portion 34 which is shaped to suit the front edge of the blades and to act as an abutment for the blades at the base of the stack (except the bottom blade) so as to prevent any tendency of the lower blade to drag the next blade above by friction as it is pushed out of the magazine by the pusher 13. The bridge piece 33 passes over the rails 31 and the space between the upper surface of the rails 3| and the lower surface of the bridge piece, i. e., the space through which the blade is pushed by the pusher, is only very slightly more than the thickness of a blade so that only one blade may pass through at a time.

After the blade II has been fed forward by the pusher [3 to the position shown in chain dotted lines in Figures 1 and 2, a suction nozzle 36, extending from a carriage 31 mounted upon two pillars 38, is caused to descend on to the blade 1! and lift it clear of the pusher I3 by means of a, cam-operated arm 39. The suction nozzle 36 is then caused to move forwardly and descend towards the pocket member 26 to de posit the blade on to a liner and wrapper 4! previously inserted into the pocket 21. The forward and rearward movement of the suction nozzle 36 is brought about by reason of the attachment of the rods 38 to a carriage 42 slidably mounted on a pair of rods 43 and adapted to be reciprocated on the rods 43 by means of a link 44 connecting the carriage 42 to an arm 46 pivotally mounted at 2| and provided with a cam roller 41 arranged to engage the face of a rotatable cam 48 secured to the shaft 24.

After the blade II has been removed from the pusher l3 by the suction nozzle 36, the pusher is returned by the arm 19 to the position shown in full lines in Figure 1 in readiness for the next feeding operation, and in order to allow the As the blade ll moves forward, the pusher pusher pin 28 to pass smoothly below the base of the stack in the magazine l2, the upper surface of the pin 28 is inclined downwardly towards its rear edge so as to give a lead-in as it passes below the stack.

It will be seen that, by the use of the present invention, the tip of the pusher pin 28 obtains a firm hold on the edge of the blade, while at the same time, excessive wear is prevented at the extreme tip of the pin by reason of the transverse movement.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for feeding blades from the base of a stack, comprising a reciprocating pusher arranged to move across the base of the stack to engage the lowermost blade in the stack by contact with an area of the blade extending transversely to the direction of feeding movement of the pusher, a slide arranged to support said pusher, said slide being inclined towards the base of the stack with respect to the direction of travel of the blade so as to cause the tip of the pusher during its feeding action to move in a direction transverse to its direction of feeding movement so as progressively to engage a greater area of the blade, and means for reciprocating said pusher in said slide.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the degree of inclination of said slide is such that the tip of the pusher while in contact with the blade being fedmoves transversely by an amount substantially equal to the thickness of the blade.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pusher comprises at least one pin protruding from its upper surface and arranged to engage the forward edge of a hole in the blade.

JOSEPH ARTHUR GILBERT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 913,628 Dempewolf Feb. 23, 1909 915,140 Whitten Mar. 16, 1909 1,093,593 Albrecht et al. Apr. 21, 1914 1,643,646 Swift Sept. 27, 1927 1,656,084 Smith Jan. 10, 1928 1,724,657 Jahne Aug. 13, 1929 1,928,098 Gangler Sept. 26, 1933 2,244,250 7 Johnson June 3, 1941 2,265,007 Ryan Dec. 2, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 131,983 Great Britain June 29, 1922 

